Education

The Galax Elementary School expansion and renovation project’s groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 28 at 6 p.m., as members of the school board and city council and a regional agent from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the funding agency) picked up painted shovels with the Maroon Tide logo and started to dig.

The moment was preceded by a color guard of military science students, a performance by members of the Galax High School band, and a word from both Schools Superintendent Bill Sturgill and Mayor C.M. Mitchell.

The Galax school system will once again see some changes in the wake of departing Assistant Superintendent Rebecca Cardwell and the ascendance of former Galax Elementary School Principal Kristina Legg into her place, said Superintendent Bill Sturgill.

“Everybody that was moved internally, they had interest in the positions they were moved to,” he said.

Starting in the fall semester of 2018, the following changes will occur in administration:

Bill Sutherland, Galax City Schools’ director of CTE, testing and assessment, announced his retirement at last Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
“I just wanted to say, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the opportunities that you’ve given me,” Sutherland said. “I’ve been really blessed here at Galax, and I’m just thankful for great people like you.”
Visibly tearing up, he added, “I’m more emotional than I thought.”

The Lift Life Foundation has said it will not fund the Curtis Bartlett Fitness Center at Galax High School, according to School Superintendent Bill Sturgill at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
Lift Life is a nonprofit organization of Bodybuilding.com. The nonprofit’s mission is to upgrade high schools’ weight rooms with state of the art equipment so students can improve their fitness levels.

INDEPENDENCE — After discussing the final details at a recent workshop, the Grayson County School Board approved an amended budget in the amount of $21.3 million at its regular meeting on June 11.
The spending plan includes funds for only seven of Grayson’s eight schools.
At the budget workshop June 5, Division Superintendent Kelly Wilmore said, “this has been a most difficult budget to prepare because of the lack of funds.”

BAYWOOD — Since announcing last month that Baywood Elementary School might close due to lack of funding for the fiscal year 2018-19 budget, school leaders have been inundated with questions from concerned citizens.

To address as many concerns as possible, the school board held a community meeting in the Baywood Elementary auditorium on June 6; and the result was a full house.

ROANOKE ― This year and last year, churches in Independence partnered with the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (RAYSAC) to provide a safe place for students to spend time with their friends after prom.

The benefits were two-fold: the event keeps students and the community safe by offering healthy, drug-free activities and keeping impaired drivers off of the road on prom night; and this year, a local student’s participation landed him with a safe new ride.

Galax High School graduation speaker Darrick André Early (Class of ’94) already made a big impact at the Mt. Zion Holiness Church of God’s Black History Month celebration in February this year.

Early, who has an impressive list of accomplishments, currently serves as the deputy regional commissioner for the National Capital Region/Federal Acquisition Service (NCR/FAS) within the General Services Administration (GSA).